Historically, several types of communication systems have employed some type of access control criteria to regulate access to the communication system. For example, computer systems are known to use passwords entered on a terminal or the like by an individual desiring to utilize the computer system. Also, selective call receivers (e.g., pagers) can be disabled via a command transmitted from a paging service provider to prevent stolen receivers and those individuals that do not pay their bill from receiving messages from the communication system.
The decision to disable a communication unit or deny access to a communication system is a serious consideration for communication service providers. The problems associated with this decision are reduced in a more centralized communication system, where the information used to make the deny/disable decision can be more rapidly updated and more readily controlled and maintained. Conversely, these problems are more profound in distributed or decentralized communication systems since the information used to make the deny/disable decision must be distributed and cannot be as carefully controlled or as rapidly updated.
These problems generally manifest themselves to the users of the communication system in the form of improvidently disabled communication units and/or unjustified denial of communication services. Naturally, such occurrences tend to cause friction between the communication service providers and the users of the communication systems. Accordingly, a need exists to prevent inappropriate disablement of communication units and improper denial of communication services.